10 Best Cities to Start a Professional Moving Company

Residential moving companies in the United States recently generated $17 billion in annual revenue, according to IBISworld. That is a lot of money behind people changing homes.

But if you were looking to break into the industry with your own moving company, you wouldn’t want to just set up anywhere. Ideally you would locate your business in a hot market, where folks are moving in large numbers. Another thing to look for is a place with growing demand for movers, less competition from other companies and also affordable housing for you and your employees.

So where are the best cities for starting a moving company?

To answer this, we teamed up with Thumbtack.com, an online service that connects consumers with skilled professionals to get things done—including finding a professional mover.

The Top 10 Cities

Based on their marketplace data, Thumbtack recently identified the metro areas in America with the most market opportunity for pro movers. The Thumbtack Market Opportunity Index is based on three factors: market size, market growth and supply relative to demand.

Thumbtack also provided the average price per job movers charge in each of those metro areas.

We took the 10 cities with the highest market opportunity and ranked them by affordability. To determine affordability, we calculated the number of moving jobs it would take to pay one month’s rent in each city, and the number of moving jobs it would take to equal the median home price in each city.

To determine our final ranking, we combined rankings for the Thumbtack Market Opportunity Index, number of jobs needed to cover rent each month, and number of jobs to equal the median home price.

2016 median home prices was obtained from Realtor.com and current median rents were obtained from Zumper.com.

Here are the top 10 best places for starting a moving company ranked:

10. San Francisco, CA

The city of San Francisco has been booming for years, raising rents and home prices along the way. If you can afford it, San Francisco has a healthy demand for moving labor, although the average job price leaves something to be desired for a market of its size.

8. New York, NY

New York City commands prices $50 more than the average national average. It has extremely high demand for moving services that is underserved by the current number of moving businesses operating, according to Thumbtack’s statistics.

5. San Antonio, TX (tie)

Texas has been one of the fastest growing states in recent history, and it may come as no surprise to see four of the state’s biggest cities earn a spot on our list. In this case, Dallas and San Antonio tied for fifth place but for different reasons. San Antonio is one of the most affordable locations on our list in terms of renting or buying a home.

4. Chicago, IL

The Windy City had the highest opportunity score on this list. A shortage of moving companies here presents a prime opportunity for any intrepid moving company owner with a taste for hot dogs, freezing lake shore winds and green beer

Alexander Harris is a reporter covering the business of self-storage. He obtained his degree in journalism from Virginia Commonwealth University. He loves reading Elmore Leonard novels and listening to classic country music. You can call him Al.